Is Pride fixed?!

So after watching UFC on Saturday which was pretty good, I sat down on Sunday to watch Pride which without a doubt has a lot more production value involved. Saturday Vargas made an interesting point to me that the Japanese don't have any scruples about fixing fights. And after watching Pride on Sunday I really have to ask myself if it wasn't fixed. Did anyone else notice that the second man introduced (ie fancier introduction) to the ring was always the one to win the match. Both hometown favorites won their matches (Sakuraba and Ogawa). Mark Hunt did very well for his first MMA match and performed some very good escapes, didn't even get a whole lot of hits on Sakuraba, but then got caught in an armbar (could have been fixed). Giant Silva did pretty well but didn't play to his strengths and didn't even look to be trying when Ogawa bested him. Silva is a huge, strong guy; Ogawa shouldn't have beat him so easily. Randleman should have killed Fedor with that slam, the fact that he was tapped right after that was utterly ridiculous. Did he give that arm on purpose? We're all of these matches fixed? I don't know anymore, with more and more production put into Pride makes me wonder how much of it is becoming entertainment and less sport.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln

Only one KO and that was by Quinton Jackson's slam. I will give you that one as real but the rest are still questionable to me. UFC is definitely real, they always have more KOs and you can't fake a broke arm, even though it was a stupid thing to do.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln

I don't think the slam on Fedor was fixed, but I do think it's possible that Randleman may have given him his arm for the submission. And Fedor is one tough M-Fer for not getting KO'd with that slam, that made my back hurt just watching it.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln

I'm not for definite sure, but I'm saying that it is possible. I'm being skeptical because I don't believe everything that I'm spoonfed. All the production and hoopla of Pride is just starting to turn me off and start to wonder.......

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln

and maybe that's why Randleman gave his arm up right away because he figured that he may have fucked up and had better get it over with

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln

Fair enough but... there's 'making it look real' - and trying to kill someone. That was not a technique that could have been controlled to 'make it look real' - the law of gravity ensures that.

Pride is a mainstream sport in japan - thats why they've got the money for the hoopla. I wish the UFC had the kind of popularity pride has so that the fighters would get paid properly and we could watch it on normal telly.

The thing I'm most suspicious of in pride is takada vs coleman - I think there's a good chance that was fixed. But there's more fights which I'm suspicious of in the UFC - some of which were really obvious fixes like Taktarov vs Marcias.

Looking at it objectively as a person from the UK, whenever I see this subject raised its always by an american who is a bit anti-japanese or at the least, very pro-american. In all honesty I think UFC is a great event too but just because its american doesn't make it the best of its kind in the world. You have the best of most good things in the US (the film industry, music industry etc) but I don't think you have the best MMA event in the world there.

Actually I'm not anti-Japanese, I've even been called a Japanese nutrider on here on more than one occasion. And really I didn't want this to turn into UFC vs. Pride, but maybe it's just the fact that I watched the two back to back on two different nights. Maybe I'm just not happy that my favorites didn't win, and I'm looking for an excuse! :) But regardless my spidey-senses were going off and I'm fishing to see if anybody else felt the same way. And I really didn't like the way the Mark Hunt fight went because I thought he was doing really good. I do predict that he will win his next match though and I bet they put him against someone not as good. But you didn't notice that the people with the fancier entrances, just so happened to win every match?

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -A. Lincoln